Christopher Malcolm
fstoppers.com
Los Angeles, CA, United States
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Past articles by Christopher:
Why You Might Want To Upgrade To The Mac Pro For An Enterprise Wide Professional Video Workflow
Today, we’ll take a look at why sometimes adding a little horsepower to your workflow can supercharge your productivity. When it comes to cameras, I have been known to make one or two frivolous purchases. Products that I didn’t really need, but wanted enough that my brain was able to convince itself of their necessity. For whatever reason, computers have never held such sway. → Read More
A Simple Way to Figure Out Your Creative Career Path
Every now and then, I hear words of wisdom worth sharing. Here are the most recent. The other day, I was out at dinner with a friend of mine. She is a fellow director, and we were discussing our various projects as well as the multitude of side hustles that each of us has undertaken over the years to make our lives work both creatively and financially. I was → Read More
One Tool Just as Important as Craft and Aesthetic for Artists
Sometimes, when you want to win the big game, you have to be willing to call your own number. No successful person is truly a self-made man or woman. It may seem like that. That might be the story that person tells in interviews or on their Instagram feed. But, truthfully, we all are in need of some help along the way in order to make our dreams come true. Sometimes, that’s a → Read More
A Beginner's Guide to Virtual Reality Filmmaking With The Canon RF 5.2mm f/2.8 L Dual Fisheye 3D VR Lens and The Canon R5 C
Ever wonder about VR filmmaking, but aren’t sure how to get started? Here is a mini-primer using the Canon RF 5.2mm f/2.8 L Dual Fisheye 3D VR lens and the R5 C camera. Let’s start with a disclaimer. I am not a tech person. My interest in all things art comes purely from a narrative approach. I am a director/DP and screenwriter. My photography career, whether still or motion, → Read More
The Aputure LS 1200D Pro LED and the Benefit of More Power When Lighting
In last week’s article, I chose to talk about the joys of going small with lighting gear. In today’s article, we’ll go big, very big, with the Aputure LS 1200d Pro LED Light Kit. It’s time for me to finally admit it. I’ve become an addict. An Aputure addict. Every time I turn around, the company seems to be announcing new lighting products, and my first response is almost → Read More
3 Biggest Changes Currently Happening in the Photo Industry and How We Can Adjust
Today, let’s discuss some of the biggest changes currently happening in the market and how those changes will affect our lives and our businesses as professional photographers. Even as I sit down to write this, I’m well aware that it is something of a fool’s errand. Sort of like buying a new TV only to realize as you're leaving the store that an even newer model will be → Read More
The Red Shoes and The Power and Pitfalls of Artistic Obsession
Today, we will talk about one of the most necessary and the most dangerous ingredients in a creative career. Last weekend was my favorite weekend of the year. It is always my favorite weekend of the year. Not that there is anything particularly special about those calendar dates. Rather, the week/weekend is special because it was time for my absolute favorite annual pilgrimage → Read More
Nikon Launches Mysterious New Teaser Campaign
This morning, I awoke early to see a new cryptic web page appear on the Nikon website. So, what’s it all about? A couple years ago, I began seeing a series of short teaser videos from Nikon about a new camera they would be launching. A series of short vignettes showing photographers in the field using their latest invention to show off its best features. That camera ended up → Read More
SmallRig Introduces New Carbon Fiber Tripod
Today, we’ll have a quick look at SmallRig’s latest solution for camera stability, the AS-100 FreeBlazer Heavy-Duty Carbon Fiber Tripod System. A few years ago, after purchasing my first cinema camera, I rushed over to my local camera store in search of all the accessories. Cages, cables, and monitors, oh my! Whatever I could buy that might in any way be related to my new toy → Read More
Nikon Introduces NIKKOR Z DX 12-28mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ VR Power Zoom Lens for Content Creators and Vloggers
Nikon continues to build its arsenal of lenses for vloggers and content creators with the brand new NIKKOR Z DX 12-28mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ VR Power Zoom Ultra-Wide Angle Lens. With the release of the compact Z 30 last year, Nikon announced its intention to make waves within the world of content creators and social media leaders. Those folks who always have a camera on them to → Read More
What Is Art?
We all know what art is, right? Or maybe not. Art used to be fairly easy to define. It’s kind of like the accepted definition for pornography. You know it when you see it. But as technologies change, it becomes harder and harder to come up with a universally accepted definition of what is art and what isn’t. And, to take that a step further, who is an artist? And who isn’t? → Read More
How to Create Your Own Opportunities as a Photographer
Exactly what does it take to be “lucky?” I’m a firm believer that we all get opportunities in life. Now, to be clear, we don’t all get the exact same opportunities. Some get bigger opportunities than others. Some get more frequent opportunities than others. The fully unfair lottery of the circumstances of our own birth is beyond our control. We don’t control where we were → Read More
The Value of Teamwork in Creative Endeavors
A few brief words on why it sometimes pays to have more hands in the kitchen when cooking up a creative project. I’ll be uncharacteristically brief with my essay today. Largely, this brevity being the result of the fact that I am knee-deep in preproduction for a commercial ad campaign I am shooting in a few days. The type where even your approvals have to get approvals. Legal → Read More
Why I Bought the Original Nikon Z6 in 2023
I just got a new camera! Well, sort of. The word “value” can have many meanings, even more with regards to the world of photography and filmmaking. How do we define value? Is it simply a matter of having the most impressive set of technical specs? Or is value better defined solely in financial terms? Is it just a matter of paying the least while getting the most? How the word → Read More
Lessons I've Learned the Hard Way When Buying Cameras Over the Years
On the never-ending camera buyer’s merry-go-round? Here are a few lessons I’ve learned along the way. It is finally gone! I won’t specify what it is. I will say that it is a camera. I won’t say which camera (it's none of those pictured in this article) because the point of this article isn’t to disparage any particular brand or camera. But let's just say that a few years ago, → Read More
Why Is Photography the Right Fit for You?
Let’s chat a bit. Have you ever stopped to think why you chose photography over all other avenues of artistic expression? I am a fan of FC Barcelona. I realize that sentence might lose me a large portion of the audience right off the bat, as many of you, no doubt, support different clubs or different sports altogether, but I bring that up simply to explain a point. My being a → Read More
How I Ended Up Using 11 Nikon Z9 Cameras to Film a TV Pilot
Today, we will eschew all the glitz, glamour, and pixel-peeping and get down to brass tax on why I chose to use a specific camera for a specific use case. I’ve written a full review of the Nikon Z9 before. A few times, actually. I’ve compared it to other cameras in my arsenal. I’ve never written a pure spec write up because I think such things have all the relevance of an → Read More
Three Non-technical Concepts That Are Essential to Photographers
In last week’s article, I discussed three mistakes to avoid when building a career as a photographer or filmmaker. Today, let’s look into three broader concepts that you might want to lean into. It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know Let’s start with my least favorite of these facts of life. As a staunch introvert, interacting with large groups of people is admittedly my → Read More
3 Mistakes to Avoid When Building a Career in Film or Photography
If you’re thinking of making your love for photography into the thing that pays the bills, here are a few pitfalls which you might want to avoid. Like many people reading this article, I fell in love with film and photography long before I was able to make a career out of it. At first, it was an innocent hobby to help me through the vagaries of life. Then, it was the → Read More
What Is the Meaning of Life, Photographically Speaking?
Today, I will definitively answer an age-old question. Or perhaps, more likely, pontificate on something that all people and all artists have been asking since the beginning of time. I might as well just bury the lede here. I, along with every other scholar and theologian who’s ever asked the question, have no idea what the meaning of life is. It’s one of those unanswerable → Read More